60% of job seekers in Malaysia use social media

While the Malaysian C-suite may be slow to hop on the social media bandwagon, going digital is increasingly becoming the best way for recruiters to fill open positions.

At least three in every five job seekers in Malaysia used social media in their job hunt in the past year, much higher than the global average of 36%, as revealed in the 2014 Kelly Global Workforce Index.

This led to Malaysia ranking fourth worldwide in the use of social media for career decisions, in a list led by India, Thailand and Indonesia.

“This phenomenon is more inclined in APAC which stands out as a hot spot with approximately half (51%) the employees involving their social media network for employment decisions, which is significantly higher than EMEA (34%) and the Americas (30%),” said Anthony Raja Devadoss, vice president of KellyOCG for Asia Pacific.

Moreover, more than four in five APAC candidates preferred to apply for a job using a digital resume or application. Online job boards were also relied on by 27% of employees in APAC, compared to Americas and EMEA (24% and 26% respectively).

However, less than one-third of job positions in APAC countries are actually landed via online job boards, according to the report.

“This opposing trend therefore warrants a re-think about how organisations engage the right talent. This is a pertinent issue as the worldwide talent gap continues to widen and projected to reach 81 million by 2018,” said Devadoss.

Meanwhile, online talent communities have sprouted as employees become more willing to open up about work challenges. Participation is the highest in APAC (25%), followed by the Americas (19%) and EMEA (10%).

“The concept of online talent community is still relatively new in Malaysia, but forward-thinking employers recognise it as the next generation of sourcing and social recruiting,” pointed out Devadoss.

In fact, Malaysian employees are eager to take up new trends. The report found them far more willing than the global average to give up higher pay and/or career growth or advancement, in order to to learn new skills (66% versus 57% globally) and for a greater work-life balance (65% versus 52% globally).

However, APAC was not the most preferred destination for job seekers, as only 7% of global workers willing to be relocated were attracted to the region. In contrast, Europe stood out, attracting 34% of workers.